4 Social Media Methods for Generating Word of Mouth
From 4 Social Media Methods for Generating Word of Mouth:
Want to get people talking? Want to use social media to generate word of mouth? Here’s a secret: there are really only 4 ways to do it:
Social Media Tool #1: Value
Marketers have realized that if you provide incredible value, consumers will line up around the block for you.
Social Media Tool #2: Status
Our social media economy has forced us to prove who we know and where we go. Our value is derived from status – and the more public that is, the better. How many Facebook friends do you have or Twitter followers? Do you wear the badge of honor that comes with more than 500 connections on LinkedIn? Are you a top 100 Blogger?… The key to status is everyone wants to share it. And the more you have it, the more you’ll do just that. If you make it simple for people to share their connectivity, there won’t be a tight lip in the house.
Social Media Tool #3: Scarcity
Nothing gets people talking like something they can’t get their hands on. Years ago, Google launched Gmail as an invitation-only experience. You had to know someone who knew someone to get your own account, which came with 5 – only 5 – invitations you could share with your favorite friends. Limited supply not only made you choose wisely, but also created infinite demand.
Social Media Tool #4: Exclusivity
Finally, if you’re going to get people talking, try yanking the exclusivity chain. It’s what makes you jealous when someone whips out their Black Platinum Centurion Diamond credit card, or why you feel so special eating tasteless tiny no-crust hummus sandwiches in the British Airways Club Lounge. Exclusivity is the velvet rope of social media: everyone wants to be special enough to be on the right side of it.
But exclusivity isn’t limited to stuff. Information and knowledge can be the basis for incredible chatter. Why do we all want to talk about the secret ingredient in Coca Cola (it’s water, silly!)
Read the whole post here.
7 Habits of a Highly Effective Landing Page
Does your online marketing strategy include things like “conversion,” “ROI” and “new customers?” If the answer is yes, then landing pages are something you’ve thought long and hard about. Landing pages broker the exchange of information between you and the interested party. Combining an eye-catching offer button with an effective landing page can turn what was once just web traffic into a steady stream of leads for your sales team.
7 Landing Page Best Practices
- Pass the Blink Test
- Keep It Simple
- Keep It Short
- Graphics and Endorsements Matter
- Go Naked
- Restate Value
- Eat Your Own Dogfood
What do those seven best practices all mean? Read the entire post here: 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Landing Page
How Weekly World News Got 40,310 Facebook Fans In 4 Days
From How We Got To 40,310 Facebook Fans In 4 Days:
When we took over the Facebook Fan page for Weekly World News , they had 3,244 fans. 4 days later, we had 40,310 fans– 10 times larger. We’re going explain exactly how we did it in this exclusive article for AllFacebook.com. In the coming days, we’ll demonstrate how fans translate into trackable revenue, how to perform analytics, integrating social widgets (Open Graph Protocol) with your site, and other aspects of effective Facebook marketing. But today we’re looking only at growing your fan base quickly.
The Background
A few weeks ago, Facebook made some massive changes– more of your personal data as publicly available, you could like something from a website (as opposed to only from Facebook), community pages launched to challenge Wikipedia, and so forth. But the biggest change in our mind was that “become a fan ” was changed to just “like”. The user doesn’t know what they’re liking– the cute saying, the underlying page, the website they’re on, or their friend’s remark.
It used to be that you could tell when clicking on an ad would take you to a fan page or to a website. The fan page would have the “become a fan” button, creating an in-line fan– meaning that they can become a fan without ever having to go to your page. At first we thought this was terrible, since we felt that users wouldn’t want to be yanked outside of Facebook. Therefore, the ads that send users to Facebook pages would have a higher CTR– and this, we reasoned, would be something Facebook would “like” (pun intended), too.
But it’s a funny thing how data often proves you wrong. The highest click-to-fan conversion rate we had achieved prior to the F8 change was 55%– that’s for an in-line fanning of the ad. After the switch to like, we saw conversion rates consistently in the 50-90% range. We tried a range of ads– here are a couple…
Read their 8 tips here.
101 Social Media Marketing Terms Explained
From The Ultimate Glossary: 101 Social Media Marketing Terms Explained:
On the web today, things change fast. New applications launch every day and existing applications continue to evolve and add new features. As we all learn about social media and inbound marketing and we teach others about it, having a resource that quickly and clearly explains all of the basic terms and applications is critically important.
Read the whole post here.
4 Tips for Managing Online Criticism
From 4 Tips for Managing Online Criticism
1. Try Not to Be Hurt – Sometimes people criticize because they have a legitimate concern, and sometimes they criticize because they’re having a bad day. If you take things too personally, you will end up causing yourself undue stress, and you won’t enjoy your work as a result. Take everything with a grain of salt, and consider the source.
2. Differentiate Complaints from Venting - Not all criticism is constructive. Think about it from the customer’s perspective. Venting acts like a release—it allows someone to express their frustration when something goes wrong. Complaining often has no resolution—the complainer is trying to use their dissatisfaction to reinforce negativity. Customers venting provides an opportunity for a response, while complaints have no next step. Figuring out which is which will help your business and your stress level.
3. If You Are Wrong, Apologize – Let’s face it, no one is perfect. Sometimes we make mistakes, and when we do, the best response is to accept fault and apologize. This does not mean you should apologize every time someone doesn’t like what you have to say. A good litmus test is the “defensive” test. If you’re feeling defensive, it probably means you could have done something better, and it’s best to admit your mistake and move forward rather than ignore it. Be careful not to belittle the opinions or feelings of your followers, as a bad apology can do more damage than no apology at all!
4. Seize the Opportunity – If people are talking to you about something you can change, you’d be remiss to dismiss it. Think of it as a chance to speak to your followers to let them know you are listening and taking their feedback seriously, even if you don’t agree. Better still, learn from your mistakes so you can avoid making them again in the future.
Read the whole post here.
